Legal instruments to combat money laundering in the EU financial market

Points out that the creation of the euro currency and liberalisation of the EU financial markets has created opportunities for money laundering. Outlines international legal instruments to combat money laundering; these include the Financial Action Task Force’s 40 recommendations and the Wolfsberg Money Laundering Principles, plus the European Union Directive on Money Laundering 1991 and amendments to it, the national Financial Intelligence Units, and the Europol Convention. Moves on to the European Council meeting in Tampere, Finland on Immigration and Justice in 1999; this decided to establish a European Police College and Eurojust, a network of national prosecutors, magistrates and police officers from each member state which will be a judicial counterpart to Europol ‐ there was a transitional body, the Provisional Judicial Cooperation Unit. Concludes that some of the institutions overlap, but Europol could become the equivalent of the US FBI.